The hassle to dismantle San Francisco’s Vaillancourt Fountain is off to a rocky begin, as development crews by chance began a hearth whereas disassembling the construction’s cantilevered arms.
“Throughout torch-cutting exercise, particles contained in the tubes ignited,” a spokesperson for the San Francisco Arts Fee tells The Artwork Newspaper. “The group responded by constantly spraying water to regulate and shortly extinguish the hearth. There was no main injury.” The spokesperson added that the fountain’s welded metal tubes are being reduce by torches and, “as anticipated, this course of produces sparks”.
Work to dismantle the Armand Vaillancourt’s 1971 Brutalist fountain started on Monday (4 Might), after the California appeals courtroom denied a request by the native coalition Pals of the Plaza to halt its removing.
“The town spent the final yr arguing that the fountain was riddled with asbestos and wanted to be eliminated for security,” says Jack McCarthy of Pals of the Plaza. “Now it is being eliminated with out an air-quality allow, in open air with out tenting, and a hearth has damaged out.”
Throughout a website go to on Wednesday (6 Might), it didn’t seem that employees had been sporting masks, respirators, hazmat fits or any form of protecting clothes to mitigate publicity to guide or asbestos. As well as, there have been no indicators warning passersby—together with these enjoying padel on the courts subsequent to the fountain or consuming lunch within the plaza—of potential publicity to hazardous supplies.
When requested about this, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Division says that the asbestos is “encapsulated” and that employees “should not disturbing it”. Nonetheless, the company couldn’t clarify what “encapsulated” meant on this context, whether or not town had sought steerage on whether or not permits had been wanted or utilized for, nor whether or not it had thought-about the necessity to warn the general public of potential publicity.
Vaillancourt Fountain, San Francisco Photograph: Wally Gobetz through Flickr
“We’re having a tough time understanding how town’s declare that they wanted to take away the fountain for security might maintain water once they’re at present probably exposing the general public and employees to hazardous supplies on this method,” McCarthy says.
Pals of the Plaza has been working to convey consideration to the plight of Vaillancourt Fountain and the encircling Lawrence Halprin-designed Embarcadero Plaza. Proof means that the Recreation and Park Division had beforehand tasked the developer BXP with quite a lot of upkeep tasks for each the fountain and plaza prior to now 5 a long time.
An absence of correct upkeep seems to have contributed to the failure of the fountain’s pumps, as a lot as the widely poor state of the plaza. The town and BXP cited these components as justification for his or her proposal to redevelop the plaza and take away the fountain. For its half, town has provided myriad excuses for why the fountain ought to be faraway from the location, regardless of the protests of residents who repeatedly requested in public conferences whether or not a brand new park may incorporate the fountain not directly. This included arguments that the fountain was a risk to public security and safety, both due to structural instability or the presence of lead and asbestos, and that it attracted folks experiencing homelessness.
Although town initially needed to demolish the fountain outright, sustained opposition—together with from the nonagenarian, Montreal-based artist himself—appeared to vary native officers’ thoughts. In November 2025, town determined to dismantle the fountain and retailer it for 3 years, at a further value of roughly $4m. That call got here simply days after town’s planning division decided the fountain was eligible for the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations.
“Whereas we’re dissatisfied with the courtroom’s resolution to permit the removing of the fountain to start with, we stay dedicated to advocating for Vaillancourt Fountain and Embarcadero Plaza,” McCarthy says. “The town has acknowledged their plan is to fastidiously take away the fountain so it may be studied and evaluated. We’ll proceed to be engaged with town in all public processes associated to the way forward for the fountain and Embarcadero Plaza.”
